Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the Iranian people have a deep desire for democracy that Americans should support, but he warned against throwing money at the current regime in Tehran, Fox News reported.
Pompeo was one of several bipartisan speakers at Saturday's National Council of Resistance of Iran's (NCRI) "Free World Summit," where the former U.S. State Department head under former President Donald Trump cautioned against financial incentives as part of ongoing nuclear deal talks. He said the recent Iranian election of the hardline President Ebrahim Raisi is just the latest evidence that Tehran is prepared to use any foreign money to "inflict terror" on its own people and the Middle East.
Pompeo has for years accused Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, of carrying out terrorism against the country's own people in addition to egregious human rights abuses. Pompeo and Trump both stood in opposition to any reboot of the 2015 nuclear deal between the U.S. and Iran that the Biden administration is attempting to work out currently.
"We cannot shower the Ayatollah with money and economic benefits in the hopes that he won't use it to inflict terror," Pompeo said at the conference in Washington. "This thinking is foolish, dangerous and backwards."
"The program of sanctions and pressure employed by the Trump administration needs to remain the model for engagement with Iran if we want to ensure the security of the American people and better lives for the Iranian people," Pompeo added.
Pompeo has long been a critic of the hardline religious government in Tehran. In January, just one week before the end of Trump's term, Pompeo posted a photograph of Khamenei, Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, and former Iranian President Hassan Rouhani with the caption: "Let's talk Iran. The men in these photos threaten America and Israel nearly every day."
Along with Pompeo, Senators Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican; Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat; Robert Menendez, also a New Jersey Democrat; and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, wer in attendance at the conference.
"We must continue to support the Iranian people as they fight for a freer and more democratic Iran in any way that we can," Pompeo told attendees at the summit. "There is so much good work that American civil society can do to further this goal. It is work that your organization is actively engaged in – keep up the fight."
Newsweek reached out to representatives for Pompeo as well as Iranian diplomatic officials in Washington on Sunday for any additional remarks.
